Keep your family out of court.

What probate actually means for your family

Probate is the court process that takes over when someone dies owning assets in their own name. In Wisconsin it is generally triggered when a person dies with more than $50,000 in their name alone, or solely owned Wisconsin real estate. Once it starts, your family works on the court’s terms, not their own.

• It is public. The inventory of what you owned, what it was worth, and who received it becomes a court record anyone can look up.
• It is slow. Wisconsin expects estates wrapped up within twelve to eighteen months, and even a smooth informal probate commonly runs six to twelve months before your family receives what you left them.
• It costs money. Filing fees, publication costs, and professional fees come out of the estate before your family sees a dollar.

A will does not avoid probate

This is the single most common misunderstanding in estate planning. A will does not keep your family out of probate. A will is a set of instructions for the probate court. If your plan is a will and nothing else, you have planned for probate, not around it.

How we keep your estate out of court

A properly funded revocable living trust holds your assets so there is nothing left in your name for the court to administer. Around it, we coordinate beneficiary designations, survivorship titling, transfer-on-death deeds, and Wisconsin’s marital property agreement, a probate-avoidance tool that exists only in this state. The result is an estate that transfers privately, on your family’s timeline, without a judge involved.

Every plan is flat-fee, quoted before you commit. If you already have documents, we’ll review whether they actually avoid probate, because an unfunded trust is just an expensive will.